“TAMMY HAIDER throws you on the back of of the truck… Reserve your energy, Haider’s in for the long haul” ­- MIKEY CAHILL, HERALD SUN

“TAMMY HAS a unique style which shows an incredible capacity for synthesizing classic pop and new ideas. She’s provocative and daring in a way that a lot of people can’t be at the moment. Even though she has experience as a songwriter she’s always able to make her songs sound fresh, like she just discovered the things she’s singing about. You can’t help but admire that” – DAVID NICHOLS, CULTURAL COMMENTATOR

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MELBOURNE TOTE RESIDENCY:

Tue Dec 5, 12, 19

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Crystalline Melbourne songwriter Tammy Haider’s debut solo album, The One, is an inter­play of the organic and the experimental; a humour of the mind, an ache of the heart, drawing the listener close like a confidant.

Whilst Tammy Haider loves and lives to play music, her lifestyle as a musician is slightly atypical. Rather than inhabiting the clichés of inner city life ­- soaking up sound, living after dark, and falling into dangerous adventures with all the right people ­- Haider prefers a splendid isolation, more akin to a poet or short storywriter. “It’s how I make sense of my life”, Haider explains. “I know I can write a good song, that’s a really powerful thing – I’m blessed I can do that. I like taking myself away, not being around people.”

Domiciled in Berlin for several years, Haider got hungry – hungry for new experience, new music, and new ways of creating. Leaving her much ­loved ambient/alt­.country duo Royalchord behind in Berlin, Haider circled back to Melbourne with a well received EP, Genuine Feeling; a bridge between Royalchord and her long awaited solo debut, The One.

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Throughout her new work, Haider’s effortlessly melodious voice takes centre ­stage around acoustic and electronic music ­spheres, created by Haider and her co-­producer Andrew Bencina; with Barry Turnbull, Andrew Papadopoulos, Marcel Borrack, Tobias Hengeveld, and Jeff Samin all lending different instrumental voices. And while it expands the preceding EP’s wry tales onto a wider, stranger, more reflective canvas, this new work is highly unfiltered; her autobiographical epiphanies ringing more deeply true as they ascend to a higher plane. “The One” was mixed by renowned engineer Andy Stewart, whose credits include Gotye, Brighter Later, Paul Kelly and CW Stoneking.

In addition to a well ­received set at 2016’s Summer Tones festival at Abbotsford Convent, and opening for Kurt Vile earlier this year, Haider has played regular low ­key slots in Melbourne, honing her wry observations and slyly confessional missives. Ever unafraid to experiment, Haider remains committed to giving the song what it demands, in the spirit of her long­running inspirations St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, PJ Harvey, and new discovery Kali Uchis, whom Haider describes as “a Colombian Amy Winehouse; equally uncensored.”

Life, uncensored makes for great music in Haider’s world. “Life is hard: but it can be joyful”, she affirms. “I didn’t want to make a ‘joyful’ album – that would be a lie. It’s just maybe more peaceful”.